India lose only Twenty20 international in England (Lead)

Manchester, Sep 1 (IANS) A win eluded India once again as they lost the lone Twenty20 international against England by six wickets at the Old Trafford here Wednesday.

Sterling displays from Eoin Morgan (49) and Jade Dernbach (4/22) helped England scamper home to a six-wicket win in a tense Twenty20.

Opting to bat first on a sluggish track, India made a competitive 165 all out in 19.4 over after valuable contributions by debutants Ajinkya Rahane (61) and Rahul Dravid (31).

Rahane’s eye-catching 49-ball innings was studded with eight fours and Dravid playing in his first and last Twenty20 international smacked three consecutive sixes off Samit Patel to score a 31 from 21. Suresh Raina, who had a miserable Test series, also scored a useful 33 from 19.

India, however, were largely done in by Dernbach’s array of slower balls and yorkers as he returned with his career-best figures of four for 22 from 3.4 overs.

England made a slow start, losing debutant Alex Hales to a second-ball duck off Praveen Kumar and were 17 for one after three of their Powerplay overs.

Kevin Pietersen scored 23-ball 33 but it was Morgan’s 27-ball 49 that kept England in the match.

England needed 10 runs off the last over, and Samit Patel (25) and Ravi Bopara (31) held their nerves to take the team safely with three balls to spare.

In the last over, umpire Rob Bailey erroneously called wide when Vinay Kumar pitched his first delivery just inside the tramlines and then Patel came up with two streaky fours and a slap over extra cover to pull England over the line.

Both players were booed by Indian fans for their decision to play against their country of birth, but their turned the jeers into cheers with their unbroken partnership of 35 that secured the win for England.